Antarctica - Day 8 - Part 2

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 5TH

After getting back on the ship, it was time for breakfast.  I normally skip breakfast but now that I've been up and trudging through snow for a couple of hours, I worked up an appetite so had to check out the offering.  Breakfast on the ship is buffet style, and they had put out eggs, bacon, toast, fruits, cereal, yogurt, and a few other things I probably missed.

After breakfast, we suited up again. This time it was going to be for a Zodiac cruise in the waters around Spert Island, an island lying off the west extremity of Trinity Island, in the Palmer Archipielago.  They had to split everyone into two groups in order to get us all on the available Zodiacs for a 90 minute cruise around the bay.  I was in the early group today.

The water was really smooth and the Zodiac ride was awesome. Just feeling the wind on your face, smelling the fresh air, hearing the water splash around us.. it really felt like you were IN nature now more than just observing it.  The views all around us were amazing but with people on each side of the boat, it was kind of hard to get great shots without someone getting in the way.  It took a little time but we finally figured out a method that seemed to work well.  people on one side would kneel down on the floor while the other side took photos over your head and then we would switch when the views were on the other side of us.

I was really surprised at just how beautiful the weather was and how warm it was on the Zodiac.  I was so worried about being cold on this trip and so far, I've been anything but. Even on the water like that. :)   Here are a few shots to give an idea of how things looked:

The first two shots have the Zodiac in them to try to give an idea of scale to the area we were in, and to the size of one of the icebergs that was just sitting behind the ship when we offloaded.

Here are two more shots looking on each side of us to show you how big this bay is and just how smooth the water is right now. 

And this shot hopefully gives you at least a little idea of how massive those mountains really are. I felt really small sitting down on the water looking up at them.... heck, just that iceberg in front of the mountain was massive!

Here is another shot of that iceberg with a Zodiac closer to it, so you can really see the size of it.

After going around a few icebergs and getting up close to them, we wandered further out and over to this massive rock and channel between them.  There was a big chunk of ice stuck in there that totally blocked our ability to pass the rest of the way through there, but it was fun to get up close to it and just see how wedged in there it was.

In the photo it looks like that thing might be connected to the rocks, but it was actually fully free floating in there.  When we got up and super close to it, you could watch it just bobbing up and down on the water and it didn't seem possible as that chunk of ice had to be the size of a 2 or 3 story home.  Yet it just bobbed around effortlessly between those huge slabs of stone.

This was just a quick shot, looking back at the ship to see just how far we've traveled so far, and we were still moving further away when I shot this.

There was a very cool rock arch hidden way from our view until we got close to it, and then two small caves as well.  We tried to talk the driver into taking us through there, but he wouldn't risk it because he couldn't be sure how safe that would be.

Here is another decent sized iceberg that has been worn smooth by the seas over however many years it's been out there floating around.

There was a little bit of a ice jam back here... at least until the winds and tide change again and all that huge ice floats back out into the bay.

And then totally unexpectedly, we saw our third type of Penguin out there..  this Adelie Penguin was far from home and much further north than they usually travel. No one seemed sure what might have brought him so far north, but for now it was taking a break from swimming and just hanging out up on a rock shelf.  

The 90 minutes out there went by so very fast. I couldn't believe it was already time to get back to the ship, but there was another group waiting for their turn so back we went.  Here's what it looks like looking up at the ship from down on the water.

The rest of the day was spend on the ship and was pretty relaxing.  We were served lunch at noon, and then after a short break there were a few lectures again. The first was on the Exposure triangle at 13:30 and then at 15:00 there was the first Critique session where everyone was asked to pick two shots to share with the group and then the Pros would tell you what worked or didn't work with the shot and ways to make them better.  That session was great and it was interesting to see what other's were shooting.

Then it was dinner at 19:00 and Critique session #2 which mostly covered the photos that the first session didn't get to.  After that, a lot of people headed to their rooms to sleep after getting up so early, but the light outside was looking good and I wanted to stay up and see what came of it, along with a handful of others.  Looks like this might be the regular night owl group as it's the same people again tonight as it was last night.

The wait paid off as the light was pretty amazing tonight.  Now to find out if I got any great shots out of it.  It's too late to look now... it's almost 1:30am and I need some sleep!

Antarctica - Day 8 - Part 1

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 5TH

There was a very early wake up call this morning.  At 4:00 am the wake up call came across the intercom to get everyone up and moving around and ready to make our second landing of the trip.  This morning's landing was in Mikkelsen Harbor, a small bay on the south side of Trinity Island between Skottsberg Point and Borge Point, in the Palmer Archipelago.

The weather conditions were actually pretty nice, with a small breeze (17-21Knots) and a Temperature:  of -3ºC | 26.6 ºF at the time of the Zodiac ride across the harbor.  The morning was beautiful and the sunrise that was still happening lit up the area all around us with the most beautiful light. If I hadn't already packed up all my gear into the dry bag, I would have been taking pictures like crazy.  I just hoped we would get to the land before the light went away!

The Zodiac ride over to the landing spot wasn't very long this morning and the water was much smoother than we had on the ride yesterday.  I don't think there were many big splashes this morning which made me regret not getting my camera out earlier but it's always better to be safe than sorry.  There are still way too many days of photography ahead to risk shorting my camera out now.

Here is a look back at the ship where you can still see the way the early morning light is just touching the mountains around us.

The following photo shows how beautiful the light was even more... I just wish the photo could also let you hear how quiet and peaceful it is here!  The penguins are even being quiet this morning compared to the loud group we saw yesterday. It's truly an amazing place.

The first, huge difference in today's landing is that today we have tons of snow and ice around us compared to that muddy mess we had to walk around in yesterday.  I have to say that the smell today isn't nearly as bad either which was a nice surprise. I think the snow really helps keep everything a little fresher.  I know I certainly enjoyed walking in the snow a lot more!

One of the first animals I saw was this Skua just laying in the snow near our landing site.  It didn't seem bothered at all by me as I got closer to take it's photo. It just laid there watching me. These are one of the biggest threats to Penguins on land, as they like to feed on Penguin eggs and chicks.  Maybe this one had already gotten its fill of eggs this morning.

There was also a seal nearby just lounging in the snow down by the water.  I waited and watched it for a while to see if it would move so I could get a better shot, but turns out... seals don't do much of anything once they find a spot to snooze.  I finally gave up and realized this would be the best photo of this seal I was going to get today.

 The penguins here are all taking advantage of the few places without snow, to build their nests and lay their eggs.  There were only a few spots on this island with bare land visible and most all of it was taken up the the mating pairs. I have to say, they sure have some amazing views from their chosen spots!

There would be these little rock outcrops here and there and on every one of them, you'd see a few more Penguins.  They don't seem to let much open ground go to waste this time of year.  Once again, this nest just has some amazing views. 

Another thing I've learned is that Penguins aren't the quietest creatures around.  They are constantly squawking and calling out. You can see one of them here doing it.  I think I was able to get some good video footage of them where you can hear what it sounds like. I'll have to post that later when I get a change to go through all my video footage. 

It was fun wandering around in the snow and just watching these few groups as they woke up to start their day.  They weren't nearly as active right now which made watching them easy, but made getting any kind of interesting photos a lot more difficult.

When it was time to head back to the ship, I just had to stop and take one last look around.  This entire bay is surrounded by amazing Mountains, with Glaciers and snow packs that have to be seen to be believed. I can't even explain the scale of how big these things are... but hopefully the photos can give you an idea.  Look at the way all of that snow and ice just goes right down to the water's edge!

Oh, and just for grins, here is a picture of TWO seals that joined the beach party .. and yep, they were just as exciting as the first fella I saw this morning.  I guess they are better at doing rock imitations than they are at looking like active animals.  :)

This post seems like it's getting pretty long so I'm going to break it into two parts.  Watch for part 2 later today :)

Antarctica - Day 7

At 4:00 am we crossed what's known as the Antarctic Convergence. The Antarctic Convergence or

Antarctic Polar Front is a circular current continuously encircling Antarctica, varying in

latitude seasonally, where cold, northward-flowing Antarctic waters meet the relatively

warmer waters of the sub Antarctic. Antarctic waters predominantly sink beneath the

warmer Sub Antarctic waters, while associated zones of mixing and up-welling create a

zone very high in marine productivity, especially for Antarctic krill.  Were were told this area is usually pretty heavy with marine life, especially whales because of the high concentration of krill here.

The Antarctic Convergence is a zone approximately 20 – 30 mi wide, 

extending across the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans between the 48th and 61st

parallels of south latitude. This line is a natural boundary rather than an artificial one. It

separates not only two hydro-logical regions, but also areas of distinctive marine life and

climates. Now we were officially in Antarctica!

The morning wake up call went out at 7:30 am this morning, with breakfast being served at 8:00 am.  We are supposed to finally see land at some point this afternoon and then have our first landing of the trip at Barrientos Island in the Aitcho Islands Group/South Shetland Islands. This volcanic island is home to Chinstrap and Gentoo penguins.

Before the landings start, there is going to be a safety briefing on IAATO regulations and on Zodiac operations, going over the process of getting on and off the Zodiacs and then the decontamination process before and after each landing as well.

The safety talks lasted almost 2 hours but it was nice in that it helped pass the time while we wait to get to shore and off the ship for a bit.  There was lunch at noon and then one more talk about the best ways to carry gear on each landing and what you should and shouldn't do.  I think everyone is just anxious to get off the ship for a while now and to finally get to see some wildlife.  Feels like we've been on the ship for days even though it's only been about 45 hours ... 

It was finally time to make our first landing of the trip so I headed off to my room to put on a few more layers of clothes.  Not knowing what to expect, I figured I'd play it safe and put on two base layers under a thicker top layer and then my windbreaker / rain coat.  I also put on a smart wool bottom layer under my jeans, followed by a waterproof top layer.  I was instantly too warm on the ship so headed out on to the deck to try to keep cool while waiting to board the Zodiac. 

The water in the bay was pretty rough and we got hit with a few really big sprays of water on the way too shore. Now I understand the need for a dry bag for the camera gear and the waterproof top layers for out clothing.  It wasn't cold at all on the ride, but when the water hit me in the fact, that was a wee bit chilly. LOL

As soon as we landed, you could see Penguins on the beach and some had already wandered over just to see all the weird big Penguins on the beach.  LOL  I was surprised to see how little snow there is here and how muddy the ground is. As bad as it smells right now, I'm sure hoping this island isn't made of pure Penguin poo. LOL  This is the nesting season and I can already see Penguins on nests all around.  I think I shot way too many shots on this first stop... just being excited to see all the Penguins so close up.  We got here a bit late so only have an hour to spend taking photos, but it's good to finally be shooting some and to be on solid ground again.  The time went by so fast, but I think I got a few okay shots for my first attempts.

Chinstrap Penguin

Gentoo Penguin

 

Gentoo Penguin looking over its shoulder

Chinstrap Penguin coming right at me to check me out

Pebble Thieves Get an Earful

Another Penguin gives up a pebble theft attempt LOL

Overview of the Penguin Colony

Another curious Penguin heading my way

Penguin just getting ready to turn the eggs

 

Another pebble stand-off

I wasn't sure what this squabble was about but the Chinstrap Penguin seems to be enjoying the show

We headed back to the ship at our assigned time and then had dinner at 7:30.  After dinner there was an Advanced Lightroom class and most people were looking through all their photos from the island. Everyone seemed really happy and excited by the experience.

The rest of the night was just spent sharing pictures with each other and talking about the whole experience of watching Penguins building their nests and stealing pebbles from each other. It was a very funny sight to see for sure.

Antarctica - Day 6

Sleep was really tough last night.  I think I woke up just a few hours after going to bed to the ship really pitching and rolling and hearing a few very loud booms from huge waves slamming into the ship during the night.  Now I know why the beds come with rails on them, it really is to keep you from being rolled right out of bed. They were saying that we would be experiencing mild waves before the trip started and all I can say if the ship feels like its being tossed around like a toy in a bath tub in mild waves, I would hate to see what it feels like in really rough seas.

Looking at the latest report that was posted upstairs though, it looks like the weather report changed as the night went on and the current weather conditions are Gale for Winds of 34-40 Knots and the Seas are listed as Rough.  That would explain the way the ship is just being tossed around right now.
The good news is that I am feeling no effects of sea sickness at all, but just trying to get into the bathroom to shower this morning was a crazy adventure.  It’s really hard to stand up and I was seriously worried I might get thrown right out of the shower when I first got in there this morning. Luckily there is a rail in there to hold on to, but taking a shower one handed is no where near as easy as you'd think.  LOL

Time to head upstairs and sit in on the first talk of the day. I decided to skip breakfast this morning.  My body just can’t adjust to the time yet and there is no way I can eat breakfast when it feels like 3 am to me. I usually never eat breakfast at home until 10am as it is.

Its looking and sounding like there are quite a few people that are feeling sea sick due to the way the ship is just rolling back and forth right now.  They still say this is pretty calm for the Drake, so now it totally makes sense why they were pushing the sea sickness meds so hard at dinner last night, even to people who never suffer motion sickness.  Even though I’m still okay, I have never felt a ship move like this… heck, I haven’t even felt a small boat on a lake bounce around the way we are right now, and looking outside the seas really don’t look THAT bad.  It’s some kind of weird optical illusion I think.

The morning has mostly been filled with talks. It started with a lecture on "The Art of Seeing" and then after a short break there was a talk by one of the wildlife experts on "Seabirds and Penguins".  She mostly covered all of the wildlife we should be seeing on the trip and shared pointers on how to tell the difference between many of the different species we may see.

The slight rolling motion of the ship has been getting worse as the days goes on, and people have been flung across the ship more than a few times now. It really is no joke that you should told on to the hand railings whenever possible and to really try to time the rolling motion when you walk across the room.

During the breaks between talks, I’d gone outside to attempt to shoot photos of some of the birds following the ship, but shooting photos of birds in flight is tough enough on a good day and its even tougher when the ground underneath you is pitching side to side 12-15 degrees. I have to say I’ve gotten really good at surfing the deck while trying to shoot some photos now though.  I’ve managed to just stand out there without holding on to anything and ride the ship like a surfboard while taking photos. Being able to stand out there doesn’t mean I got a single good shot though!  LOL

Here are some of my better shots of birds so far...

They finally closed the deck to us and no one is allowed outside any longer today.  The ship is really bouncing around now to the point where it almost looked like waves were going to roll up on the deck a few times as we rolled WAY over to the side.  We’ve done that a few dozen times now and you can almost time it when it happens.  It’s very crazy to watch it happen out the window but not scary or anything. It’s kind of become the norm today.  I can’t even imagine how bad this crossing would be in bad weather with big seas.

There were a couple of more talks during the afternoon before dinner and one after dinner.  They covered topics on Wildlife Photography, Photographing Birds and then after dinner there was a great slideshow and talk about photography in Antarctica put on by a guy that's made the trip 34 times now.

Everyone headed to bed right after that final lecture and I’m the only one up in the lounge other than the crew so maybe I’ll head to bed now and see if I can’t get a bit more sleep tonight.  We are supposed to reach the Shetland Islands tomorrow afternoon and have our first excursion of the trip around 4pm! They also said that the seas will be much calmer once we get inside the cover of the island which made more than a few people happy.  I’m curious to see just how must calmer the water will be.

Antarctica - Day 5

After a year of planning, 2 days of travel and 2 days of waiting around in Ushuaia, the big day where we all finally get on the ship is here!  I got up pretty early to make sure to get all my stuff packed up and ready to go, as it has to be taken to the lobby of the hotel next door by 9:00am so that it could be picked up and taken over to the ship for boarding.  It finally feels like the trip is real, but but now that my bag has been checked in next door there is still another 6 or 7 hours of waiting around to do until we can actually go through customs and board the ship at 4:00. 

Needless to say, the wait dragged on and on and seemed to take forever for 4pm to roll around.  I ran into Randy and Bob, the guy that went to dinner with me last night before so we all wandered around together while Randy looked for a few last minute clothing items.  The shopping helped pass the time a little but even after all that, there were still 5 hours to sit around and wait. Tick tock, tick tock….  I won’t bore you with the tedious details of the wait more than I might already have.

Everyone from the trip started to gather at the port at around 3:30, all seeming to be as anxious as I was to get this show on the road.  We milled around in front of the port Entry for a while until the time came to finally get our carry on bags scanned and board the ship. It was pretty funny in that the security scanning processed seemed like it was much more for show than for true security. They never even really watched the x-ray of the bags passing through.

Walking down the dock I passed 3 much bigger cruise type ships before reaching the Ushuaia and it pretty funny to realized our shipe was about half the size of any of the others docked there.  This was certainly going to be a no frills kind of sailing.  No pool, so spa, and rooms about 1/3 the size of rooms on any cruise ship I’ve ever seen.  I'm not complaining at all though, as I wanted this trip to be more about the adventure of getting there than one where I just sat in high luxury feeling totally disconnected from the world outside.  I want to feel like I earned the right to be there once we crossed the Drake.

The only thing I was nervous about for the trip was to find out who I would be sharing a room with since I didn't pay the extra money to have a solo cabin.  I just hoped the person I was sharing the room with would turn out to be a nice easy going kind of guy. I figured I'd be in the room a very limited amount of time anyway, so I saved my money to put toward the hotel rooms on the trip.  The guy that was assigned to my room turned out to be from Washington as well.  I don’t know if that was just totally random or not, but it was kind of nice to at least have something in common with him.

Here are a couple of photos of the room showing just how sparse it was and showing the shared bathroom.

Everyone got settled in to their rooms pretty quick and then headed up to the “lounge” area and the deck to watch the ship pull away from the dock at 6pm.

We are finally under way!  Looking back at the town on the way out, you can really see just how big the mountains are and how the close in around the city.  It’s really pretty and I can hear the excitement in everyone’s voices now that we are moving and the trip finally feels real.  Here are a few shots from the deck of the ship to show you what it looked like as we started the trip.

The ship spent the first 4 -5 hours sailing through the Beagle Channel which is the body of water between Argentina and Chile.  The water was nice and calm and the day was beautiful out there. I was actually surprised by how warm it was here today. 

As with all cruises or trips on ships like this, there is a safety briefing and then dinner tonight and I think I’m going to try to get some sleep after that.

As part of the safety briefing, they told us to not expect these calm seas when we wake up in the morning as we’ll be entering the Drake Straight sometime later tonight after 10pm.  It guess that means its time to find out if the Drake will live up to everything I’ve heard.

We were being told that the seas will be “calm” for the Drake in one breath, and then warned about always making sure to use both hands on the rails when going up and down the stairs and being told if we wake up in the middle of the night and get out of bed, to make sure we are fully awake first… and to take time to feel how the ship is moving before actually getting up. 

Hmmmmmm…. Sounds ominous.

Antarctica - Day 4

When I finally woke up, I realized just how tired I must have been because I think I slept close to 10 hours and had maybe only woken up once all night!  That’s so rare for me that I can’t even remember the last time I slept that long or that well.  I felt great this morning so got ready for the day and grabbed my camera and decided I would explore the rest of the town and take some photos of murals I had seen the day before while out exploring.  It seemed like there were a few dozen murals throughout the city and I decided I would only shoot the better and more interesting ones I could find.

The mural above, has become very famous on Instagram from what I was told, and I guess it's a popular place for tourists to stop and pose with the penguins with all kinds of crazy selfies and shots of themselves.  I didn't go looking for any examples, but I assume you could find them out there if you try looking as I watched 4 different couples taking those kinds of shots here, spending 15 - 20 minutes each trying to get that perfect photo to impress their friends I guess.  LOL   I kept coming back until I finally got a lucky break between the Instagram fanatics and snapped my shot in about 3.5 seconds. I just wanted to get one with my life and see more of the town than just this mural I guess.  LOL

The following are all part of a long mural along a wall near the hotel I was staying at. I couldn't get the entire thing into one shot, so I broke it up into pieces... 

The following was just really interesting to look at and I wish I could have found out more about the story behind it.

I always enjoy exploring new places and getting away from the streets designed to draw in the tourists… so I headed up the hill to the top of the city and started to wander through the neighborhoods just seeing what life was like or at least trying to get a feel for what it must be like living here.  People seemed friendly and although the streets and sidewalks were a bit beat up, the houses looked well kept and I even passed a few people already out cooking meat on the barbecue, either for lunch or if they smoked it all day, for dinner.  Argentina is known for its meet, and I’m thinking they take it pretty serious from how much care they put into slow cooking it.

I passed a few playgrounds that reminded me of the playgrounds in Germany, where there were big fences around the soccer fields and basketball courts to keep the balls from flying out into traffic.  There were kids playing in all of the ones I passed by. The laughter and noise just made the streets feel alive and kind of made the walk that much more fun. 



After a few hours of wandering the residential streets, I decided to head back down to the hotel as it was getting close to the time for our first meeting for the excursion.  The trip still didn’t feel real even though I was now 7700+ miles from home.  I don’t think it will feel real until I’m on the ship and we pull out of port, but at least the meeting where we get our passes and last minute info will make it feel like it’s really going to happen.

The meet and greet with the group going on the expedition went really well and I met some of the people that were going on trip and met a few people I knew I would have fun hanging out and talking with while we sail south for 48 hours.

After the meeting ended,  I grabbed dinner with one of the guys I had met, and we decided we had to try out a steak place just down the street from the hotel.  When I said they were serious about their meat here, I don’t think I really knew how serious until we hit the restaurant.  I made the mistake of ordering the “big steak” and looking at the price I assumed it was going to maybe be an 8 oz steak. Imagine my surprise when it showed up and looked to be a pound if it was an ounce!  Yikes!!  Those of you who know me know how slow I eat, and I quickly realized two things… one, I could never finish that steak, and two… if I even attempted to try, I might be there 4 hours or so. LOL  The steak was excellent and I did my best, but think I barely managed to eat half of it, without anything else but a couple of bites of mashed potatoes.

Now that I was full, and I had been walking half the day, I decided I should attempted to get one more really good night of sleep, as it may be 12 days before I sleep really well again.

Antarctica - Day 3

Got up at 3:00 am so that I could shower and be ready to head out of the hotel by 4:00am and get to the domestic airport here.  Even though it was so early in the morning, there were still a lot of people out and about on the streets of the city, looking like they were just heading home after a long night of partying, or maybe just moving on to the next part.  I asked someone about that at the airport and they said that the city parties all night long every Friday and Saturday night and that was totally normal.
The good news was almost everyone I saw that morning was walking so the streets were pretty empty and I got to the airport in less than 15 minutes.  As bad as immigration was coming into the country, security to fly out to another part of Argentina was so quick and easy and I was through security with plenty of time to spare.

The only real difference between flying domestically here as opposed to most other countries I've been to, is that to check a bag, you have to check it at airline’s counter where they weigh it and put in on the conveyor belt, but then you are handed a receipt for the bag and sent down the hall to a cashier window to pay the checked bag fee. It was strange they couldn't take the payment at the counter.  The cashier was kind of hard to find at first, and then after I paid the fee, they printed me a new boarding pass and sent me on my way.  It was a totally different and not all that efficient experience really, but the airport wasn’t busy at the time so it really didn’t add all that much time to my check in process.  If I wouldn’t have been so early, it might have been more stressful as there were only two people there to collect the baggage fees for all the flights that morning.

The flight to Ushuaia was smooth and only took about 3.5 hours. Ushuaia is known as the city at the end of the world for good reason. I have to admit it wasn’t what I expected or pictured in my head.  I was thinking this would be some really small port town where a few ships docked, but it was actually a nice sized town completely surrounded by big mountains that seemed to loom over you as you walked around the streets there. It's beautiful to see the way the mountains loom over the city like that.

I hadn’t eaten in over 24 hours so I was getting hungry and since I got to my hotel before I could check in, I hit the restaurant there and had some lunch.  By the time I finished lunch, my room was ready and I got all checked in and settled, and decided to head out and explore the town a bit.  I hadn’t slept much in the last 24 hours, so it was just a short exploration of the main street with all the tourist shops and restaurants tonight. By the time 10pm rolled around I was beat and called it a night and thought I should try to get as much sleep before getting on the ship as I could, since I knew sleep would be hard to come by once on board the ship.